


Getting Lost and Getting Along

by Maybelimitless



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Corn Mazes, F/F, Gen, One Shot, but mostly just apple cider fluff, fall themed fluff, mention of foster care being not awesome, ok i guess some mention of darker times, pre-romantic swan queen, they're just now discovering the miracle of feelings, tw: world's vaguest mention of non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 16:31:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5011807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maybelimitless/pseuds/Maybelimitless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina wanted Henry to take Emma to the corn maze. Somehow, it turned into a family outing for the three of them -- a family outing Emma and Regina would really like to get out of, each for their own reasons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Getting Lost and Getting Along

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Set at some ambiguous point in time when Emma and Regina aren’t like 110% buddies yet but still obliviously half in love, I guess? I’m not really sure what age Henry is supposed to be in this, but he is obvs super serious about corn mazes. Maybe they’re his thing.

“Moms, come  _on_!” Henry dashed away, around the turn in the corn maze. All morning he’d been running ahead, only to come barreling back, frustrated that his mothers were not as excited about finding the way out.

Well, it felt like all morning anyway. Emma glanced down at her watch. The three of them had entered the maze only 45 minutes ago. Yeesh. Time does not fly when  _not_ having fun, as they say. She chanced a sidelong look at the woman walking next to her. Regina, predictably, was dressed in one of her dark pantsuits, with heeled boots thoroughly unsuited to the corn fields. Thrown around her neck was a burgundy scarf Henry had given her a few weeks earlier when the Maine weather had started to cool. Her hands, already in pristine black leather gloves, were stuffed into the pockets of her tailored black peacoat.  Emma thought the former Mayor seemed chilly and bored. She was surprised when the other woman spoke.

“You know, I could just poof us out of here. I’m sure Henry wouldn’t even notice.”

Emma snorted slightly, amused. “You mean you’re not loving this?” Emma half-turned now, walking sideways and gesturing at the crops reaching over both of their heads. “Wasn’t this your idea? ‘Henry dear, why don’t you see if Emma would check out Storybrooke’s newest attraction with you?'”

“I meant for the two of you to get lost in this cursed maze together. I can barely recall how I even got roped into this as well.  I had a lot of work to do back in town–”

“Ha! See? I knew this was a ploy. That’s you, Regina, always so conniving!” Emma was suddenly enjoying herself much more. The first part of the day had been sort of awkward, driving up and meeting Regina and her son at the farm in the outskirts of town. They didn’t spend all that much time together, just the three of them. And certainly not in the absence of impending doom. They exchanged a few words about the nip in the air and the color of the leaves on the trees and Henry explained that it was all his adoptive mother’s idea, but once Henry took to running ahead, the two women were left with little to talk about. Willingly wandering around lost unnerved Emma somewhat, and Regina obviously thought the whole activity was a little silly.

Regina almost smiled, grateful too that the weird silence between them had broken. She didn’t actually know all that much about the Savior that wasn’t related to her son, or a curse, or a prophecy or some kind of magic. What did one casually discuss with the birth mother of one’s son, who also happened to be the daughter of one’s most hated nemeses, from back when one was evil and had things like nemeses? Regina thought about checking the library for advice in books, but going to the library meant running into the woman she had forcibly institutionalized for 28 years, so it was a losing situation coming and going. And besides, why was it she even wanted to know how to talk to Emma?

Henry crashed through some corn as he took a corner too tightly, his face laughably stern and his pace breakneck as he headed back to the pair of women. “Moms, I don’t think you’re taking this seriously. We have to find our way back to the barn. Where they have apple cider and caramel apples for us to eat. The record for this maze is an hour and 15 minutes. We only have  _half an hour_  to beat the record, and I haven’t seen anyone else in a while so I think we’re ahead of the pack.”

Emma grabbed him around the shoulders in a small hug, looking over the top of his head at Regina. Her eyes glittered as she spoke, “ You’re right, kid. Listen, how about this: We split up. Your mom and I will try to find our way out on our own, and you can keep running around hoping you’re as clever as your two moms here. Then, either one of us beats the record and you can be happy, or, at the very least, you beat us and we’ll buy you some of those caramel apples.”

Henry narrowed his eyes first at Emma, then Regina. He felt dimly like he was being played, but figured he had a good chance of ending up with bragging rights, candy, or both. “Deal. But you two don’t stand a chance.” He took off back the way the three of them had come, then dashed down a different fork in the maze. His mothers could hear him shouting “no cheating!” as his footsteps faded away.

Regina raised an eyebrow. “You really think he’ll be ok on his own?”

“Sure! Wasn’t it your idea to leave him, anyway? Now you can poof us out of here, and we’re no longer tramping around, lost on a farm! C'mon, Regina, even if he really gets turned around, he can always literally walk through the corn and find his way out. The kid’s been through worse than his moms outsmarting him.” Emma crossed her arms over her coat, her sweatshirt underneath bunching up. For her part, she had at least dressed a little more appropriately than Regina. She inclined her head toward the other woman, waiting for her trademark purple smoke to encircle them both.

With a wry, crooked grin, Regina tossed up her hands, filling the narrow lane in the corn with her magic. A moment later, she and Emma reappeared next to a picnic table near the large, graying barn. The smell of fresh fruit baking and warm cider drifted toward the pair.

Emma collapsed on the table’s bench, letting her legs flop unceremoniously out before her. She squinted up at Regina. “Have a seat, Your Majesty. You have successfully saved us from the hell of cliché Fall family activities.”

“Miss Swan, you know Henry’s not that bad. I should admit, I suggested this outing partially because I thought you might enjoy doing something so…,” Regina paused, searching for the right word, “… **normal**  with your son.”

She couldn’t help but notice how gentle Emma’s smile had become. “Well – I mean – thanks, Regina. I mean that. With a lot of things I probably would enjoy doing something 'normal’, but…” Now it was Emma’s turn to pause, trying to put her thoughts into words. “I don’t like feeling trapped, you know? I know it’s just a fun thing to do – corn mazes– but I hate feeling like I don’t have choices, options, different paths to for sure get me out alive. Maybe if I’d done things like this with Mary Margaret and David as a kid I’d feel better about it. But all I could think of, when we were wandering around there, was what it felt like, having adults come pick me up and shuffle me off to the next foster home. I didn’t know when the next fork in my road would pop up. Do you know much about Child Protective Services? Foster care? Let me tell you, Regina, now  _there’s_  a maze for a kid to get lost in.”

Regina bowed her head, hiding slightly behind her hair. It was the most she had ever heard Emma talk casually about her childhood. She didn’t know what to say. She had never been great at relating to others on an emotional level, but she did know the trapped feeling Emma was talking about. She hadn’t thought about it in the maze, but she felt it when the other townspeople looked at her and saw only the Evil Queen. She had felt it whenever she stood outside the King’s chambers, not wanting to go in to their shared bedroom, but having nowhere else to go. She had felt it as a girl herself, frightened by the future Cora painted for her, but unable to escape any farther than up onto the back of a horse.

She felt now that she had let too much time pass, caught in her own memories. If she wanted at all to connect with Emma, she was sure she had missed her chance.  She sighed. “And here I was just cold.”

Emma barked in laughter, big and – to Regina’s surprise – beautifully. Emma turned toward Regina, squinting again as she continued to chuckle. She shrugged out of her bulky coat and held it up to the other woman. Her blonde hair was a mess around her hoodie-clad shoulders now as she shook the coat lightly, gesturing for Regina to grab it.

Stunned, Regina reached out a gloved hand and took the coat from Emma as if it were a fragile, injured bird. “Miss Swan, I can’t. You’ll freeze.”

Emma shook her head while glancing away, adding, “I’ll be fine, Regina. I don’t think it’s that cold anyway.” Regina could see her breath as Emma spoke, and when Emma reflexively rubbed her hands together and exhaled into them, she cocked her head and stared at Emma skeptically.

“If you insist. But I’m getting you some hot apple cider – no, don’t object – to warm you up too. I think I saw that they flavor it with cinnamon here. I’ll be back in just a moment.” There was a pause as Regina snuggled into Emma’s coat. “Thank you for this.”

Emma protested and shouted after Regina that it wasn’t necessary, but the other woman simply waved her hand dismissively at Emma, not bothering to even turn around. Emma watched her walk up the small hill to the barn, talk briefly with the man pouring cider into Styrofoam cups, pay, then turn and head back down toward the blonde. Emma couldn’t take her eyes off the line of Regina’s shoulders disappearing into her own ugly tan coat. It was the most absurdly un-cosmopolitan thing she had ever seen her wear, but for some reason Emma felt Regina should never take it off. She shook herself a little to force her gaze elsewhere, blinking as she reached out and took the warm cup from Regina. She murmured her thanks softly and unconsciously hummed her greater gratitude while she sipped the spiced drink.

Regina settled onto the top part of the table, saving her boots from the dirt by resting them on the bench, next to where Emma herself sat. She folded herself over, leaning her face down conspiratorially close to Emma’s, “So how long do you think we give Henry before we collect him and bail altogether? 30 minutes?”

Emma grinned and nodded, suddenly unable to say a word.

* * *

Just twenty minutes later, Henry poked his head out of the corn maze’s exit, having beaten the record by ten minutes. He saw his mothers and was about to shout at them – both to exclaim his prowess and to admonish their obvious cheating – when he realized what he was seeing. His adoptive mother was seated a level above Emma, actually throwing her head back and laughing richly, one leg innocently leaning into Emma’s shoulder. Emma was staring at her with what appeared to be a smile and faux exasperation, as she brought a cup of something steaming to her lips. Henry slowly reversed into the depths of the maze, confident they had been too distracted to notice him emerge. He did not know what exactly was happening, but he knew better than to interrupt when his moms were getting along.

But what Henry could not yet have known, was that Emma was already on her second cup of cider, courtesy of the Evil Queen, and that in an hour, when Henry finally grew too cold and bored to play dumb any longer, Emma would stare at her watch again in shock at the passage of time, though now for an entirely different reason.

Nor could Henry have predicted that later that evening, both women would complain of how the brisk autumn wind had whipped about and stung their cheeks, leaving them sore and painful. In time, however, he would come to learn that neither of his mothers had ever known that smiling so hard for so long could leave exactly that same lasting impression.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at maybelimitless.tumblr.com if that's your thing! :)


End file.
